When Blake was a baby, I read something about opening a different Christmas book each night leading up to Christmas Eve. The first year, I had to borrow a few books from Greg's mom (she was a Kindergarten teacher for 27 years) and each year I have purchased a few more. The boys take turns opening a book each night and then we read it. We have Thomas, Biscuit, ISPY, The Night Before Christmas, Rudolph and some of the other favorites as well as The Crippled Lamb, No Room in the Inn, and many other books about the night of Jesus' birth. Each year we wrap all the books from the year before and I usually add two or three new books. The boys LOVE this and look forward to this each year. One of my reasons for doing it is it forces us to sit down together and enjoy a few moments as a family in the midst of a hectic season.
Another tradition with our boys is the advent tree wall hanging. The boys place an ornament on the tree each day leading up to Christmas. The 24th we place the star on the tree! Greg's mom made this advent tree for Greg when he was small and he did this every year. It hangs on the boys' bedroom door each year!
We always let the boys help decorate our tree, especially the one in the family room. They have boxes of their own ornaments and they get to help place them on the trees. It is fun to see them open the ornaments and this year in particular, Andy was precious, "Ooohing" and "Ahhhing" as we unwrapped each ornament.
Another tradition we have is to get together with Greg's parents and make MANY Christmas goodies: magic cookie bars, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter and chocolate fudge, Russian Wedding cookies, butter cookies, and more. The boys look forward to this time and all the sweets we get to bring home. One of my favorite things to make is the peppermint bark. Greg's mom has ordered the special candies and white chocolate from Michigan before just so we could make it together. In the past, we have made it with his Aunt Pam.
We also get together each year with several of our friends from church for a cookie/Christmas craft night at Brad & Missy's house. This will be the 5th year we have done this and the boys always look forward to going and getting to spend time with their friends. We usually decorate cookies, have breakfast food for dinner and make a few cute crafts!
We usually try to make it up to Cincinnati and see the train display downtown, drive around to see Christmas lights, watch Charlie Brown's Christmas, the Rudolph and Frosty cartoons and other various Christmas shows. This really is such a special time of year and the lights of Christmas make everything seem so beautiful!
Our newest tradition this year is "Elf on the Shelf". Greg's mom bought the Elf and the book at Thanksgiving and gave to the boys. They are having fun trying to find the Elf they named Jack each day. Tonight they could not find him....so we left him there and we'll try again to find him tomorrow!
What are your traditions with your family?
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